


Rainbound

by sdeer



Category: EXO (Band), 소녀시대 | Girls' Generation | SNSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 14:01:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10388286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sdeer/pseuds/sdeer
Summary: This fic was written for K-Pop Olymfics 2017. Olymfics is a challenge in which participants write fics based on prompt sets and compete against other teams of writers, organized by genre.This is Team Future’s fic for the following prompt set:Taeyeon – "Rain"lyrics|video|supplementarypromptsThe other 2 fics for this prompt can be found inthe collection. Competition winners are chosen by the readers, so please rate this fic usingthis survery!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [kpopolymfics2017](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/kpopolymfics2017) collection. 



> This fic was written for K-Pop Olymfics 2017. Olymfics is a challenge in which participants write fics based on prompt sets and compete against other teams of writers, organized by genre. 
> 
> This is Team Future’s fic for the following prompt set:  
>  **Taeyeon – "Rain"**  
> [lyrics](https://colorcodedlyrics.com/2016/02/taeyeon-taeyeon-rain) | [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHir_vB1RUI) | [supplementary](https://www.flickr.com/photos/65147323@N06/6782878171/) [prompts](http://67.media.tumblr.com/34a9967d55d7a34afc49ea7c3c8d1876/tumblr_oh9rqpKMCl1v9m0i0o1_500.jpg)
> 
> The other 2 fics for this prompt can be found in [the collection](https://http://archiveofourown.org/collections/kpopolymfics2017). Competition winners are chosen by the readers, so please rate this fic using [this survery](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LkUxk0Dunfy1Yfa3wq4Db5kzJ8MiGdZYsxCXGElHnwc)!

“You are never the only one awake with a broken heart,” says the radio host, her voice sweet and cool even at this hour. “Good night now.”

Sooyeon turns off the radio and curls up under her blanket, April rain pattering against the window. She keeps her bedside lamp on and closes her eyes, even though she knows sleep is far beyond her reach. She turns thirty tomorrow, but her heart is still not quite hers.

Her memories of him are all spilled over with rain, maybe because the skies overhead are gray and wet every time they meet.

He entered the company the same year she debuted. She remembers him walking up and down the hallways with a duffel bag slung over one shoulder, bowing his head and greeting her in choppy Korean, wishing her good luck on her debut showcase.

He debuted five years later with bright eyes and a kind heart, and Sooyeon congratulates him when they pass each other in the doorway of that practice room, the one painted with a blue sky and white clouds. It holds memories for many of SM Entertainment’s older artists, but it’s long been replaced now.

Sooyeon watched him grow for seven years. Every time she runs into him, he’s a little different. He stands taller, his shoulders are broader, his voice is deeper, his hair is a different colour, his features are sharper - but he still greets her the same way he always has, and it puts her at ease. His smile lands in her heart like a seed, sprouting and flowering with the gentle rinse of rain.

She remembers thinking, please stay the same.

Spring of 2014, he filed a lawsuit and went home with his head held high; autumn of that same year, Sooyeon stepped out of the company building for the last time with tears in her eyes.

“It’s going to be okay,” he texted her that afternoon.

“Thank you,” she texted back.

They collaborate a few times over the next few years, and they meet on their own time now and then; she finds time to support his movie premieres, and he flies in from different cities to see her solo concerts.

It rains every time, but when Sooyeon lays eyes on him, all she can see is the light of his smile.

She remembers him showing up at her birthday fanmeet in Seoul, pulling a party popper over her head and scaring her out of her wits; she remembers attending a fashion show with him in Paris, and half the world thought they were a couple; she remembers sitting next to him at an award ceremony in Shanghai, and he was decked out handsomely in a fitted black tuxedo from her clothing line.

It’s not until one early morning when they meet for coffee that she hears her own heart beating too fast, and she finally knows why she has chosen to stay by herself all these years. She has been writing and performing love songs for more than eleven years, but only now she’s learning what love feels like.

He walks towards her in the rain, and he looks like an angel to her, glowing brightly in a faint world of passing cars that rush through puddles and passersby who walk hurriedly with umbrellas propped over their heads.

His hair is damp when he sits down with her, but his smile and voice are as warm as always. In that moment, he is all she wants.

She tells him.

“Oh,” he says in the end. His shoulders fall and his eyes soften so sadly, and she knows before he answers. She lets him break her heart in the voice she loves most. “Sooyeon, I’m so sorry.”

He embraces her at the door, and he doesn’t let go for a long time. When he does, he draws all the warmth away from her, and Sooyeon’s left mourning the love she was too late to begin.

From beginning to end, from the first day in the company building to the last day in the coffee shop, she never once felt overwhelmed by happiness or sadness, but she can’t forget the faint ache of her heart when his face fell. Sometimes Sooyeon thinks it was all a dream, but it’s nights like these that remind her she was in love.

Sooyeon opens her window and holds out her hands, raindrops falling into her palms and splashing the sleeves of her sweater wet. The rain is cold as it seeps through the knitted fabric, but she thinks she will never feel colder than when he let her go for the last time. 

She’s not quite sure whether the blur in her eyes are the mist of the rain or her own tears.

On the rain-stained glass, she traces through the glistening trails of flowing water and writes in crooked Chinese: WU YIFAN.


End file.
